Tom Clonan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise, by way of update, the situation in respect of Children's Hospital Ireland, CHI, as it impacts on disabled children with scoliosis and other complications arising from having been left on waiting lists for catastrophically long periods of time. I reiterate that the medical device directive at European Union level came into effect around 2018 or 2019, and was then translated into the medical device regulations, MDRs in 2021. As such, it was the sole topic of conversation in surgical units throughout the State.

Around that time, a number of Irish surgeons were sent to Lisbon to attend a conference at which the Utrecht team pioneering the use of springs was presenting. The surgeons involved came home and reported the learnings from this, and later, springs and devices were ordered through clinical engineering in the procurement process overseen by CHI. That all reflects on the credibility of anybody on the board of CHI, whether the CEO, the chief medical officer, or any of the executive clinical directors who said they had no conversations about off-label, in-house or custom-made surgical devices in that context. I also note the lack of urgency with regard to the plight now faced by disabled children on surgical waiting lists in Ireland. In fact, to my knowledge, no orthopaedic surgery is now being carried out on any disabled child in Ireland. I will repeat that: no orthopaedic surgery is being carried out on any disabled children in Ireland. None. I have learned that in the last number of weeks, one child awaiting surgery has become permanently paralysed as a consequence.

Senators probably remember the cave rescue of 12 children in Thailand in 2018, where the whole world mobilised its resources to assist those children. They may remember the children who were trapped in a cable car in Pakistan in recent weeks.A whole continent mobilised its resources to help those children. For how long have we in Ireland had disabled children on surgical waiting lists who are not receiving the interventions they need? Able-bodied children are being sent abroad under the National Treatment Purchase Fund to places like Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, while disabled children are not. As I have stated previously, it is my lived experience that the reason our disabled children are being left to become permanently impaired is that in this country disabled citizens and children are not valued as human beings to the same extent as others are - for shame. We need to exercise the urgency that is being exercised in mature, caring societies. I call for an urgent debate with the relevant Ministers and the people responsible. We need to start to treat disabled children. They should not be left on these lists.